Act II, Scene ii
by Donner Dumott Schunard
Summary: Entry for speedrent. Mark wants to do Romeo & Juliet, so he makes Angel and Collins recreate the famous balcony scene.


Well, I came up with this as I was watching versions of i Romeo & Juliet /I in English today. As I read exerts from ye olde English script of the play, put my iTunes on shuffle, gorge on BBQ chips, and drink Pepsi... with caffine, I give you this little story

**I don't own RENT**.

**Act II, Scene ii**

**By Donna**

Mark set up his camera. He looked down at it and smiled. It was being quite well behaved. It didn't jam for two days. Either it was bored making Mark's life a living hell, or it might have learned its lesson.

"Angel, please! Just say it! '_Ay, me_,'" Mark begged.

"... '_Ay me_!'" Angel squealed, "Who the hell says that?"

"It's in Old English, honey," Mimi said, playing with her dress.

Angel fumed. "Fine. Fine." She feigned fainting, brining her hand to her forehead. "_Ayyyy meeee_..."

"Guys, can we hurry up!" Collins yelled, dangling on the fire escape. "I really, really want to get this over with!"

Mark sighed. "Come on, pull yourself together!"

A personal dream of Mark was to do his own version of _Romeo & Juliet_. It seemed a little corny, clichéd even, but he loved Shakespeare. It was a common interest that he had shared with Collins for a while, now. So Collins gladly assisted as Romeo. Mimi was slightly miscast as the Nurse, but it was only because she didn't want to memorize all the soliloquies that came with Juliet's parts. Angel, always wanting to be the center of attention, wanted to be Juliet very much. She just didn't want to stick to the damn script.

"Okay," Mark said, "Let's try again, from _As daylight doth_."

Collins nodded. He found himself clinging to dear life on the fire escape. Angel sat on the windowsill, watching. Sure, Collins was supposed to be in hiding, but Mark wasn't able to afford complex camera angles and proper scenery. So Angel had to be looking inside her room, er, Mark and Roger's loft.

"Action!" Mark yelled.

Collins said, in an excellent acting tone, "_As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven_..."

Angel made a point to look up into the skies above. Mark made sure to show that. Then he quickly went back to Collins.

"_...Would through the airy region stream so bright_

_The birds would sing and think if were not night._

_See how she leans her cheek upon her hand..."_

Angel leaned into her hand, playing with the plastic tiara in her hair and smoothing her table cloth/Disney princess/thrift store goodness creation.

"_...O, that I were a glove upon that hand,_

_That I might touch that cheek!"_

Angel tried to hide the fact that she found that line a mixture of corny and disturbing. Then she remembered how Collins was so adamant about recreating Shakespeare, and how Mark was determined to make everything work, and she decided to focus.

So she said, in a breathy voice, "_Ay me_."

Mark smiled.

Collins tried to hide slightly behind the cold metal, murmuring:

"_O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art_

_As glorious as the night, being o'er my head,_

_As is a winged messenger of heaven_

_Unto the wite-upturned wond'ring eyes _

_Of mrals that fall back to gaze on him_

_When he bestrides the lazy puffing clouds_

_And sails upon the bosom of the air."_

Mimi snickered. Mark turned his head and hushed her.

Then came Angel's big part.

"_O, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?_

_Deny thy father and refuse thy name,_

_Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,_

_And I'll no longer be a _Schunard."

"Angel!" Mark yelled.

"It's called 'artistic license,'" Angel said, batting her eyelashes.

Mark sighed. "Fine."

"If our parents found out we were together, they'd be fighting like the Capulets and the Monowhatsits," Angel added.

"_Montague_," Collins corrected.

"Yeah, them," Angel said. She fixed her tiara. "Okay. Okay. Let's keep going."

"Yeah," Mark said, "We'll keep that... er. Yeah. Action."

Collins continued_, "Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?"_

Angel tried to pour her heart out as she spoke

"'_Tis but thy name that is my enemy._

_Thou art thyself, though not a Montague._

_What's Montague..."_

She rose up and walked out onto the fire escape. She grabbed Collins' by the chin, grinning. She continued:

"_Nor arm..." _she moved to his arms, which were wrapped on the fire escape, _"...nor face..."_she put her face close to his and planted a kiss on his lips, _"...or any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!"_

"This is getting pretty hot," Mimi added.

Mark sighed. "They're not supposed to..."

Angel placed another kiss on Collins' lips and said:

_"...What's in a name? That which we call a rose _

_By any other word would smell as sweet._

_So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,_

_Retain that dear perfection which he owes_

_Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,_

_And, for thy name, which is no part of thee,_

_Take all myself."_

They began to kiss again, until before you knew it, Collins was half-way over the fire escape, on Angel. Angel clung to the windowsill for dear life as the next line was lost in the passion.

Mark groaned. "Guys! Come on!"

Mimi laughed. "I like Shakespeare!"

"Can you two get inside first?" Mark begged.

They looked up and nodded. "Sure."

They crawled inside and made a beeline for the couch.

"We need to do this more often!" Angel chirped. "What's the one with the skull? Let's do that one!"

Mark sighed, looking at his camera. "I'm so sorry you had to see that."

**END**


End file.
